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Witch Hunt: A History of Persecution by Nigel Cawthorne

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Good information but told in a repetitious manner that wore this reader down A witch burning Cawthorne's Witch Hunt: A History of Persecution is a recounting of the witch hunt craze that infected not only Salem, Massachussets, a topic with which most Americans have a least a passing familiarity, but throughout Europe to a much, much larger degree. The back of the back says that this book "...examines this persecution and the religious hysteria which inspired it." To me the use of the word examination implies that the author will interpret this hysteria and make observations and insights throughout the reading . Cawthorne does not do anything close to this, with the exception of a brief, four page introduction. Rather, he recounts witch trial after witch trial, often going into great detail about the tortures used and the indictments brought against the accused witches. While this is an impressive bit of research, the book felt half-done. It was as

An Open Letter on Translating (Kindle) by Martin Luther

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A piece of history, yet still accessible I should note that I am a lifelong Lutheran and Martin Luther is one of my personal heroes, despite his numerous and many flaws. An Open Letter on Translating is a September, 1530 letter to Luther's critics concerning his translation of the Bible from Latin into German. This was very controversial at the time and it led to a lot of disagreement (even wars) over who should be allowed to read the Bible and who should interpret its meaning. Martin Luther (1483-1546) Luther defends his translation in his very best combative style. He correctly notes that not all turns of phrases translate literally from one language to another. He notes, along with a liberal dose of insulting names for his opponents, that he and his team of translators did a lot of research and took great care to make his translation accessible and accurate. What is perhaps most amazing is that this document is amazingly readable for anyone conversant with the iss

Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

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 "It is a tale ... full of sound and fury; signifying nothing." -Shakespeare The above quote tells quite a bit about Olmstead's Coal Black Horse . It is garnish and flair, it is pretty words and gruesome descriptions of the horrors of war, but it is a story without a point, except to say that life is without value and, eventually, someone will end yours and it will all be over. Olmstead borrows heavily from the styles of Howard Bahr and Stephen Crane to create this book. From  The Red Badge of Courage he borrows the stylistic device of never quite letting the reader what battlefields or locations the book is set in - that is until he suddenly tells you that it's in Gettysburg. How Robey avoids tens of thousands Confederate soldiers stacked up along the Potomac River (they massed there for days waiting for flood waters to go down) is a mystery to me. Why Olmstead decides to tell the reader the battlefield at that moment is a mystery as well. Fr

On the Decay of the Art of Lying (kindle) by Mark Twain

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Not Twain's best work. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Twain says that On the Decay of the Art of Lying was an essay written in 1885 for a $30 prize for the "Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford". Twain notes that he did not win a prize for this essay. The essay focuses on the lost art of lying. Twain discusses different kinds of lies, situations in which people lie and why all lies are not bad. The essay is sometimes funny but mostly sounds like an old stand up routine about good lies and bad lies. The Kindle version is very short - only 86 locations which equals about 12 regular pages. I rate this essay 3 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: On the Decay of the Art of Lying by Mark Twain. Reviewed on May 28, 2009.

Old Testament Legends being stories out of some of the less-known apochryphal books of the old testament (Kindle) by M.R. James

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Sometimes interesting, mostly tedious   M.R. James has collected additional stories from the Old Testament era. None of these is included in the canon books. These are not stories from the Apocrypha but even more stories. In times past, some churches actually treated some of these stories as scripture. According to M.R. James, some of these are quite ancient and some are newer. The stories are arranged chronologically and feature Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, Job, Joseph ,Jeremiah and Solomon. A new, non-Biblical character is Ahiker, advisor to the King of the Chaldeans. The stories about Adam and Eve mostly concern how they deal with being sent from the Garden of Eden. The story of Job is a re-telling of his book in the Bible, but it is more satisfying than the original. M.R. James (1862-1936) The story of Solomon is very bizarre. Solomon uses a ring to control demons in order to build the Temple. Abraham gets a lot of attention in these stories and we get to read stories ab

Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion (Kindle edition) by Mark Twain

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Story of a trip by Mark Twain to Bermuda - starts fairly weak and ends strong Mark Twain (1835-1910) The title of this essay has it right - these are just a series of stories about a trip that Twain and some friends took to Bermuda from New York City. Twain wrote this for "The Atlantic" in 1877 and his wry style makes him an excellent travel companion. In reality, Twain's story of the trip is the story of the people he meets along the way. Most of the stories are humorous, some are duds and about an equal number are quite funny. I won't forget the story about the town with the cat situation for quite a while. Twain on Bermuda: " We never met a man, or woman, or child anywhere in this sunny island who seemed to be unprosperous, or discontented, or sorry about anything. This sort of monotony became very tiresome presently, and even something worse. The spectacle of an entire nation groveling in contentment is an infuriating thing .&qu